Abstract
In our modern society, oil is omnipresent in our habits and plays a significant role. It has several stakes in economical, political and strategic fields. Indeed oil is considered as the best energy source because it is easily extracted, stocked and transformed. Moreover, its energy yield is very high. However, the constant growth of the world oil consumption linked with concerns about the energy security, raise many ethical problems. What are these problems? What solutions can be provided? In a first part, the context of oil and its depletion will be set. Then, in a second part, the overall business ethics problems will be tackled. In a third part, light will be thrown on the particular issue of car industry. The top 20 countries which have the greatest proven petroleum reserves in 2006 represent 95% (1224.5 billion barrels) of the world reserves. The ratio reserves/production remains rather stable and, at the current level, petroleum reserves are superior to 40 years. Many areas have become dependent on these countries: oil is today a pillar of our societies: new uses of petroleum appear every day. OPEC is the main player on the oil market, created at the Baghdad Conference in 1960 by Venezuela, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Later Qatar (1961), Indonesia, Libya, Algeria, Nigeria, Ecuador, United Arab Emirates, Gabon and Angola (2007) joined the five founding members.
